Farmers Movement: Our Self Respect Is Not for Sale, Say Himachal Farmers

Standing tall at six feet, Tarsem Singh Saggi from Himachal Pradesh has an impeccable record as a policeman. However, he is posted on another duty these days – to safeguard his rights as a farmer at Delhi’s Singhu Border.

Donning an off-white turban and blue pants, Saggi from Paonta Sahib is among the thousands of farmers who are camping at the gates of the national capital to protest against the recently enacted three farm laws facilitating contract farming, establishment of private mandis beyond the jurisdiction of state’s law and the withdrawal of limits on the storage of essential commodities by private traders and agri based companies.

He and his friends maintain that the fate of farmers in the hill state is no different from those in the plains, with the government actively devising ways to alienate farmers from farming. Saggi said that farmers in the region grow wheat, paddy, sugarcane, ginger and tomato. However, except wheat, government agencies do not procure any of the produce and they are chiefly traded in open markets.

Gurvinder Singh Gopi, vice president of the Himachal Kisan Sabha, who is leading the contingent at Singhu, talked about the procurement process in the state. “After years of struggle, former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar in 1991 requested the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to set up its buying centre in Sirmaur but this came with its own terms and conditions. FCI said that it would only procure wheat in a limited capacity. They procure at the guaranteed minimum support price.”

“But,” he continued, “the norms are quite strange. If there is moisture in the wind, it dampens the colour of wheat. The officials then refuse to purchase it. As a result, the farmers are compelled to take the produce to APMC markets in Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand. For other crops, the farmers sell the produce as per their convenience. If I talk about previous year’s procurement, the total production of wheat was around 2 lakh quintal but FCI only procured 2,000 quintal. Rest of the produce went to open markets. The nationwide lockdown brought the worst horrors for us in the sense that the farmers had to take the produce to Haryana in trucks meant for supply of medicines.”

Saggi added with emphasise that the farmers’ issues are not limited to procurement, but there are issues with right pricing as well. He said, “PM Modi, every now and then, claims that his government has delivered minimum support price to us. There are two MSPs. We do not want a price which does not cover the all the input costs. We want MSP as per the Swaminathan formula.”

“Secondly, if he is so benevolent towards farmers, why does his government keep increasing the prices of diesel? He knows it very well that the farmers need diesel for every purpose; from ploughing to watering the farms. His government has increased the diesel price by Rs 23 from 2014,” he said, highlighting the government’s dual standards.

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Not only that, pointing out the faults in the implementation of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, under which farmers are entitled to Rs 2,000, he said, “The fact is the farmers who filed zero income return on the income tax website, and the pensioners and the widow pensioners are getting notices to return the money to Tehsildar.”

Gopi showed one of the notices sent to Ishfaq Ali, a farmer from his area, stating that the farmer was not eligible for the received money and he should return Rs 12,000 to Tehsildar. The notice also stated that Ali will be penalised in case of failure to pay.

Sitting next to Saggi, Jeet Singh said the fear of renewed costs is looming over them after Irrigation and Public Health department proposed that the farmers extracting ground water will have to pay Rs 0.02 per litre. Singh said, “It effectively means that we will have to pay Rs 120 per hour because a motor somewhat extracts 60,000 litres per hour. Crops like sugarcane and paddy need water for longer hours. So, far we have rejected the proposal but nobody knows the intentions of this government.”

Talking about the newly enacted laws, Saggi told NewsClick, “The laws have not been designed considering our concerns and several myths are being propagated (so that farmers accept the laws). One such myth is that the arhtiyas (middlemen) are looting farmers. It’s incorrect to call them as bichauliyas (another term for middlemen). He is a facilitator for us. It is he who provides monetary help to us during emergencies. It is he who provides free bags for packaging at the mandi. It is he  who cleanses the produce before procurement. How can I say that he is looting me? The relation between farmer and arhtiya is similar to that between flesh and bone.”

“Not only that, Modi ji said that we can do contract farming. That’s fine. But will he tell us if we can sell the land during a contract” For many small farmers, land is last resort for money. The answer is no,” he added.

On being asked about alternative crops to increase their returns, Gopi said, “It is true that we can go for alternative crops but it does not appear to be feasible now. One problem is cultural as the many people settled here came from Punjab and they are have knowledge only about traditional crops.”

“Further, the costs are huge too. If I talk about the expenses for paddy per acre, it can safely be said that a farmer spends Rs 50,000 including rent, ploughing, weedicides, pesticides and labour, whereas they would merely get Rs 56,580 for 30 quintals. That amounts to total savings of Rs 6,580, excluding the farmer’s labour. For wheat, one can save a bit more. An acre of crop requires input costs of Rs 31,000 whereas the return would be Rs 38,500 if everything is fine,” he added.

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“If we move upwards in the hills,” he further said, “people grow tomato and ginger on a large scale. But they cannot sell here for local consumption because we do not have processing unit and government is not at all interested in setting up such facilities. It is an irony that the tomato we grow goes to Azadpur Mandi first and comes back to us at a higher price.”

He also said that they have tried to build several cooperatives with the help of local farmers, but without basic infrastructural from the authorities all such efforts have failed. In addition to sheds and cold storage, roads and cheap credit is required which cannot be managed by farmers themselves.

“We did get some success. One of our cooperatives contacted a sugar mill in Dehradun. They entered into a contract with the mill about the required amount produce. Our members survey the farmers to find out the estimated produce. Then, they bring their staff here who weigh the produce. After settlement, farmers get their prices and cooperative get commission which is used for farmers’ welfare only,” Gopi told NewsClick.

Saggi also shared interesting tale about the settlement of Sikhs in the region. “The Paonta Sahib has a special significance in our religion (Sikhism). The name Paonta comes from Pao Tika (Set Foot), when the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, came on the invitation of local king Medini Prakash to defend him from the attack of the King of Dehradun. Later, he spent four and a half years of his life here. So, people migrated along with him,” he said.

The emotional attachment of a farmer to his land was clearly visible when Saggi said, “I am a small farmer but land is my mother. It never leaves us hungry. How can we abandon it? As far as this struggle is concerned, we are sure we will win this struggle. Nobody has witnessed this kind of movement here, where people from all castes and religions have come forward to fight unjust laws.”

When they were asked why farmers had kept silent so far, a youth who was sitting near Gopi and Saggi said, “In our area, when somebody abuses the other at a chowk, we try to avoid. But when somebody abuses one at their doorstep, we have to reply. Modi has now challenged us at our doors. Our self respect is not for sale.”

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